The Process of Designing and Developing a ...

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process of designing and developing a Hanyu Pinyin. (Romanised Mandarin) WBI to teach non-native learners. (Malay Mandarin learners) in learning Mandarin ...
2010 International Conference on Educational and Network Technology (ICENT 2010)

The Process of Designing and Developing a Romanised Mandarin Web-based Instruction on ISD Methodology for Non-native Learners in Malaysia Lim Soo Giap

Ong Sheau Fen

MahBoon Yih

Academy of Language Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Penang Campus Penang, Malaysia soogiap@gmail. com

Academy of Language Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Penang Campus Penang, Malaysia ong8I2@ppinang. uitm. edu. my

Academy of Language Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Penang Campus Penang, Malaysia mahboonyih@gmail. com

Abstract- One of the ways to deliver a language course on learners' demand using any computer connected to the Internet at anywhere and anytime is by developing a Web­ based instruction (WBI). Besides, it can be more effective if WBI incorporates multimedia components. 'A picture tells a thousand words', thus, a Mandarin WBI that includes multimedia elements will increase the effectiveness in learning Mandarin. The objective of this paper is to describe the process of designing and developing a Hanyu Pinyin (Romanised Mandarin) WBI to teach non-native learners (Malay Mandarin learners) in learning Mandarin at a Malaysian university (UiTM) . The Hanyu Pinyin WBI is tailored to tackle the weaknesses and to meet the specific needs of Malay learners. Hanyu Pinyin WBI is designed on the basis of Instructional System Design (ISD) methodology. This approach involves four phases: (1) analysis and design, (2) development, (3) implementation, and (4) evaluation of the instruction.

conducive environment for learning Hanyu Pinyin, one of the suggested alternatives is to incorporate the web-based instruction into the curriculum. III.

Based on the objective of the study, the research question is formulated as follows: How to design and develop a Hanyu Pinyin 1. WBI to teach non-native learners in learning Mandarin at a Malaysian university? IV.

A.

INTRODUCTION

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Hanyu Pinyin is taught as part of the teaching Mandarin as a third language in UiTM. The time allocated to teach the sound system of Hanyu Pinyin is insufficient for learners. Many learners who are exposed to Mandarin for the frrst time fail to satisfactorily comprehend the intricacies of its sound system. Hence, it is necessary to devise a self-learning material for learners to enable them to manage their learning process in the absence of instructor. In order to create a 978-1-4244-7662-6/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE

Analysis and design phases

In the analysis phase, the learners' background, the instructional materials, and the delivery modes were carefully examined. This analysis provides inputs to the design of instructions such as refming the learning objectives, specifying the training media and lesson design. Learner analysis is essential to ensure that the design of online materials is customized to the learners. The intended learners of Hanyu Pinyin Instruction are mainly targeted to fulltime students who have no prior knowledge of Mandarin. Thus, prior to this, a survey was done to identify learners' Hanyu Pinyin learning requirements by identifying the difficulties faced by the learners when learning Hanyu Pinyin and its pronunciation. Two methods were used to collect the data: at frrst from the facilitator's own teaching experience and secondly, by referring to previous studies of pronunciation errors from UiTM Mandarin lecturers. This piece of data is required not only to determine the learning outcome that will best meet the learners' needs but also to develop an outline of the content, course objective, learning strategies, and assessment items that will realise those outcomes. Reference [2] had done an analysis on the pronunciation errors of initials and tone in speaking Mandarin among UiTM learners. It shows that learners make the most common mistakes in pronouncing the plosive initials (33. 7 %), followed by the affricate initials (25. 0%), and

Web-based instruction, which is also called as Web­ based training, is defined as an "individualised instruction that is delivered over public or private computer networks and displayed by a Web browser". WBT is not a downloaded Computer Based Training but an on-demand training stored in a server and accessed across a network. Web-based training can be updated very rapidly and its accessibility as a training tool is fully controlled by the training provider. [I].The Hanyu Pinyin web-based instruction (WBI) is specially designed to overcome the weaknesses in learning Mandarin pronunciation based on the specific needs of Malay learners. It is designed on the basis of instructional system design (lSD) methodology. This approach involves four phases: (1) analysis and design, (2) development, (3) implementation, and (4) evaluation of the instruction. II.

METHODOLOGY

In order to answer the research question, below is the description of the process to design and develop Hanyu Pinyin WBI based on the instructional system design (lSD) methodology.

Keywords-web-based instruction;instructional system design; Romanised Mandarin; Malay Mandarin learners

I.

RESEARCH QUESTION

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